West african black rhinoceros poaching2/28/2024 I have no recollection of clawing my way up that tree, but I do vividly remember the blissful moment when I realised that I was still in one piece. With an electric surge of adrenaline, every fibre in my body pulsed and, entirely involuntarily, I started to run as fast as I could towards my vehicle as the rhino gave charge. I knew that I needed to act fast, but I couldn’t – I was glued to the spot, my fingers still wrapped tightly around that acacia branch.Īfter a few very long seconds, the rhino located my scent and took a few purposeful steps in my direction. It was one of those surreal moments when a thousand thoughts suddenly converge at once, leaving one’s mind in a fog of helpless indecision. Looking up, my gaze was met by that of a male black rhino standing no more than 20 metres away, his enormous horn held aloft, nostrils flaring as he tried to find my scent on the hot, dry breeze. On this particular occasion, I had left my rifle in camp and was dragging a large acacia branch – discarded by an elephant some weeks before – through the bush and back towards my vehicle when something in the corner of my eye caught my attention. And despite the presence of elephant, buffalo, rhino, lion and leopard in the area, I invariably became complacent as I set out from camp in my Land Cruiser, once again, a depressingly empty trailer in tow. It was a thankless and never-ending task. Part of my weekly routine was to gather enough firewood to keep the two fires beneath our hot water tanks in camp burning permanently. I was working in Pilanesberg National Park in South Africa’s North West Province where I managed a tented camp for a private safari company. This thought first occurred to me at the most unlikely of moments, when, aged 19, I found myself clinging to the bough of a red ivory tree while an irate black rhino searched for me in a clearing below. Of all of Africa’s Big Five – so named not because of their size, but, ironically, because they were deemed by European explorers and big game hunters to pose the greatest threat to humans – the most vulnerable must surely be the rhino.
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